The poetic is the familiar dissolving into the strange, and ourselves with it.
- George Bataille, Inner Experience
The Italian performer and choreographer Francesca Chiodi Latini took her inspiration for Jardin Poilu from the bare Arctic tundra, a desolate part of the world that is as white as snow and as cold as ice. During the short summers, fluffy thistle-like flowers add colour to this landscape. In this, the memories of three absurd brothers and sisters appear and disappear. This is where they took their first steps, where they explored the barren conditions of their homeland, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Flashbacks to their childhood arise in their minds: the family’s warm affection, the moments spent together in harmony, the small conflicts, everyone talking at once, the teasing and the games.
Ordinary moments repeatedly alternate with poetic images, taking the spectator on a journey that interweaves abstraction with a palpable reality. Jardin Poilu is a white garden of memories.
concept and choreography Francesca Chiodi Latini - performance and co-creation Jacopo Buccino, Giada Castioni, Kaori Ishiguro - set and costume design Miguel Peñaranda - music Poor Isa (Ruben Machtelinckx and Frederik Leroux) - sound design Thomas Jillings - production wpZimmer - coproduction KAAP, C-Takt - pictures Boris Bruegel
